


Youth.

by cheonsana



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, but one caught feelings for the other so that's fucked up, they're childhood best friends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-16 20:49:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14818604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheonsana/pseuds/cheonsana
Summary: It was pretty immature of Dahyun to think that childhood friendships can actually last long, but perhaps it could if only her feelings weren't in the way.





	Youth.

**Author's Note:**

> I started yet another fic while still having two unfinished fics. Oh well. I guess I hate myself. 
> 
> cross-posted in aff (9yeoshins).

**_Dahyun was 6, Sana was 8_ **

 

The sea breeze hit their skins gently as Dahyun and Sana are busy building their own sand castles. They’re having a little competition on who can make the biggest and prettiest castle, and so far, Sana is on the losing side, since her castle was too near the shore, making the little waves hit the base.

 

“Ha, you’re losing, Sana unnie! Five minutes left before mommy judges the winner!” Dahyun exclaims, scooping up some more sand for touch-up and other additional details on her castle. She’s managed to build one with three floors, while Sana continues to struggle with the second level of hers.

 

“The sea hates me…” Sana mutters under her breath, stuffing more and more sand on the base of her castle while making a trench around it to protect it from the waves, which is pretty much unhelpful judging from the way the waves still manage to reach it. “This is useless!”

 

“Okay kids, it’s time! Hands up!” Mrs. Kim yells and walks towards them. Dahyun grabs a mini flag and put it on top of her tower.

 

“Oh, nice work here, honey! And sweetie,” Mrs. Kim says while examining Sana’s castle, “I don’t think that’s gonna hold up longer.” And not long after, a huge wave hit it again, swallowing a great portion of the base, making the front part of the tower crumble.

 

Dahyun grins and punches her arms up in the air. “I win! Do I get extra hotdog and marshmallow on sticks, mom?”

 

“Sure, honey.” Mrs. Kim approves and lands a kiss on her daughter’s forehead. “Now, come! Dad and Mr. Minatozaki are probably done cooking the steak.” She says as she treads back to the resthouse.

 

Dahyun starts dusting herself off of the bits of sands sticking on her skin and looked over Sana who is lying down in front of her castle, seemingly blocking the waves from continuously hitting it, her gaze focused at the tiny crab crawling its way towards the water.

 

She walks towards her and offers a hand to pull her up. “Let’s go unnie, I’m hungry now.”

 

“Go, I’m gonna finish this castle no matter what.” Sana says in a low voice. She pushes herself up, turning her back towards Dahyun, not saying a thing. Dahyun frowns, and proceeded to walking back to the resthouse.

 

Minutes later, she comes back with a white carnation on her hand. Sana still hasn’t looked up to her, her focus on the castle unwavering.

 

“Here, unnie. For you.” Dahyun says, reaching her hand out to give the flower to her. “I saw it on the house’s garden, and I thought it looked pretty.”

 

Sana finally brings her head up, but tries to ignore the gesture and goes back to shoveling. “Keep it.”

 

“Oh, c’mon,” Dahyun sighs and slumps her shoulders down. “Are you mad?”

 

“I’m not.” Sana blatantly lies.

 

“Well then,” Dahyun sticks the flower on top of Sana’s castle before grabbing her own bucket and shovel.“I’ll finish it with you! We’ll make it even bigger than mine.” Dahyun replies. Sana pushes herself up, her eyes gleaming in happiness.

 

“Really? But aren’t you hungry?”

 

“Yes, that’s why we need to be quick at building your castle so we can eat together! Let’s go!”

 

Sana stands up and tackles Dahyun’s small frame with a hug, making both of them land on the soft, wet sand.

 

“Yay! I love you, Dahyunnie!” Sana exclaims, showering Dahyun with a lot of kisses.

 

“I love you too. No, stop kissing me! Germs!” Dahyun laughs, trying to dodge Sana’s kisses but to no avail. After a while, they push themselves up and immediately get back to work.

 

Those words meant shallow back then.

 

\--

 

**_Dahyun was 17, Sana was 19_ **

 

“God, why do they even put letters on math? Like numbers weren’t confusing enough.”

 

Dahyun plumps her back onto the bed, throwing her pen on the desk. The finals are coming two days from now, and half of the subjects she detests are all scheduled on the same day. The devil must be working hard, she thinks.

 

“Hey! No sleeping, Dahyun-ah!” Sana reprimands, crumples a piece of paper and throws it directly at Dahyun’s face before burying her head again on her Chemistry book. She isn’t exactly fond of Science, and Stoichiometry is such a pain in the ass, but oddly enough, she’s found it the most interesting than any other science topics she’s encountered. She grabs her scientific calculator and pen, eyeing to solve one of the practice questions. Dahyun groans and picks the crumpled paper to shoot it inside the bin near Sana’s table.

 

They’re in Sana’s room, while their moms downstairs in the living room catching up and exchanging gossips over hot tea. Dahyun doesn’t know why their mothers still do this even though they literally always run into each other every day since they are neighbors. The walls are painted with a light color of pink outlined with white. The wall where the study table is against is boarded up with posters of the bands and groups Sana like. The room itself is spacious, but right now it feels crowded as Sana isn’t exactly neat with her things, as explained by the unmade bed, cluttered wardrobe, and a dresser with some speck of face powder from earlier.

 

It has always been like this—studying with each other so Dahyun can ask for some help from Sana, since she’s two levels higher than her, and for her to keep Dahyun’s sleepy head from drooling over her books, her mom says. When they’re at home, she always succeeds with sudden tickle attacks and sticking her finger inside Dahyun’s nose. Sana seems to do the latter a lot. They’re really close at school too, always eating lunch together and going home together even when Dahyun has to wait for an extra hour because Sana has extracurricular activities she needs to attend to after class. Some of her batch mates are envious of her for being in such a close relationship with Sana,  _The Minatozaki Sana_. She’s lost count of the number of people asking for her number.

 

“Unnie, I’m gonna fail. How can you be so good at studying? And you actually  _love_  going to school? I don’t get you,” Dahyun pouts and sighs for the nth time, rubbing her temples. Sana chuckles and pushes her swivel chair towards Dahyun’s table with her red pen.

 

“This kid…” Sana ruffles her hair before retrieving Dahyun’s notebook from her hands. “You just have to do this first…” Sana guides a drowsy Dahyun through the steps of the solution while writing the corrections in red. After boxing the final answer, she smacks Dahyun’s head with the pen she’s holding.

 

“And I’m guessing you didn’t remember any of that.”

 

“Hey! I… gave the common denominator…”

 

“That’s only the first step! Oh god, this won’t do.” Sana closes her book and proceeded to cleaning up her own desk as well before grabbing her purse and a baseball cap.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“You need ice cream.”

 

\--

 

The two of them walk towards the park, each holding a spoon while Dahyun holds the pint-sized Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. It is already past six so kids are already starting to go home, some being fetched by their nannies. There are some benches occupied by couples, others by groups of teenagers about the same age as them, hanging out on a weekend. Sana spots an empty swing and quickly ran towards it.

 

“Ah! It’s been a while since I’ve rode the swings,” Sana exclaims like a five-year old. She starts pushing herself with her legs, her spoon stuck inside her mouth. Dahyun takes comfort in the nearby bench, scooping huge amounts of ice cream onto her mouth, hisses a bit when the coldness hit a sensitive nerve on her tooth.

 

“Yah, unnie! You’re going too high!” She shouts, but her warning fell on deaf ears as Sana continued on maneuvering her weight on the swing to maximize the force. The playground is slowly getting filled with Sana’s screams of excitement whenever she reaches the highest point.

 

Dahyun puts down the pint of ice cream and walked towards Sana. She grabs onto the chains to slow the movement down, much to the dismay of the older girl.

 

“Hey, why did you stop me? That’s not even the highest yet!”

 

“What were you aiming for then? A 360? You’re probably not aware that your body looks like it’s about to get thrown off the swing.” Dahyun comes back with the ice cream and sits on the other swing.

 

“I can’t believe you’re the one saying that to me when I remember a certain seven year old having a huge gash on her arm after trying to jump off from the swings.” Sana chuckles at the memory while scooping the ice cream. “You cried a lot that time. No wait, you cried a lot when you were a kid.”

 

Dahyun blushes in embarrassment, her fair cheeks slowly revealing a tinge of pink, but thankfully the place was dark enough to obscure it. “Stop acting like you don’t sulk whenever you lose at every game we play. Remember when you ignored me for a whole day because you lost in Monopoly?”

 

“You and Taeyeon unnie were making an alliance against me! That’s unfair in all aspects.”

 

“Not unfair, they’re called tactics.”

 

“Tactics my ass.”

 

Dahyun decides to let go the shallow banter as they ate the remaining ice cream in silence. There are still faint screams of kids playing from a distance, probably from the other playground on the other side of the park.

 

“Unnie, have you already thought of what you are going to take up in college?”

 

“Hmm. Maybe something about Communication Arts. Theatre? I haven’t made up my mind yet. How about you? You should have any idea of it as early as now.”

 

“Nah. I’m too preoccupied thinking what subject I hate the most to think of what college program I’m gonna take. I’ll think about it when I’m a hundred percent sure I’ll be able to graduate.”

 

Sana laughs and pinches Dahyun’s nose, which earned a groan and a glare from the younger one. “Stupid. Of course you’ll graduate. I’ll help you if you want.”

 

Dahyun slowly looks down the ground, a lonely feeling suddenly sitting on her chest. “But unnie, you’re going to attend university in Seoul, right? It’s not exactly near from here…”

 

The older girl stands up from the swing and stands in front of Dahyun, cupping her cheeks with her warm hands. “Hey, don’t worry too much about it. I’ll go home during the weekends. And c’mon, we are not cavemen. We have technology. There’s a reason why you have my number on your phone. You can call me anytime, or at least when I don’t have class. Okay?” she says, a comforting smile placed on her lips.

 

“You promise?”

 

Sana chuckles, but nods anyway.

 

A smile finally stretched on Dahyun’s lips, quietly enjoying the warmth emitting from Sana’s hands.

 

\--

 

“Thank you, Chaeyoung-ah! Take care on your way home!”

 

Dahyun waves again at her classmate, Chaeyoung. They just finished making their report on Physics for tomorrow. It’s almost time for dinner, but she isn’t feeling hungry yet.

 

“Dahyun-ah, sit down. We’re about to eat.” Mrs. Kim tells her while placing the plates and utensils on the table.

 

Dahyun glances at the wall clock above the door.  _7:24 PM._

 

“Ah, I’m not yet hungry and I still have to finish some homework. I will just get some food later. Thank you!” She quickly reasons, and before Mrs. Kim could even complain she gives her a kiss on the cheek before running upstairs to her room.

 

She opened her laptop, the screen glowing brightly seconds later since she just put it on sleep. Logging in on her Facebook account, she rapidly scrolls down, looking for a particular person she’s been looking forward to talk to every day.

 

_Sana unnie must be at her dorm now._

 

It has been two months ever since Sana started going to college. They’ve been in constant communication still, but she can feel Sana slowly getting busier as weeks pass by. She told her something about getting a main role in a play for a theater class, and she totally understands how it can really be exhausting preparing for that. Her background in theatre plays include being a props staff for three plays straight, and while the line of work was exhausting, she knows the pressure the actors feel is a lot heavier than theirs.

 

So she doesn’t bother her about unnecessary stuff. She opens their chat box, and sees that their last conversation was from five days ago. It didn’t even last that long, because Sana had to sleep early for a 7 AM class, and she’s already exhausted from rehearsals. The absence of the small green circle beside her name signifies that the older girl isn’t online yet. She instead leaves her a message for her to read later.

 

**_Kim Dahyun (19:36:32):_ ** _Hi unnie! How are you? I hope you’re eating well and taking care of yourself well. I just, uhm, my 18 th birthday is coming up in two weeks! I’m sending details soon. I really, really hope you can come. Also, I just remembered that there’s six days left before your play, so good luck! It’s a pity I can’t come, we have to present a project on that day. Heol._

 

**_Kim Dahyun (19:38:23):_ ** _I miss you so much, unnie. Text me if you’re free to talk, okay?_

 

 

**_Kim Dahyun (19:43:21):_ ** _Love you! :)_

 

\--

 

**_2 weeks later, Dahyun’s 18 th birthday_ **

 

The celebration venue is just on Kim Residence’s spacious swimming pool area. The family didn’t invite many guests, as it was her request not to make it too “crowded” and “extravagant”. There were only her family, relatives, and some of her close friends and classmates.

 

There’s no program whatsoever either, they’re just there for a simple celebration, a simple dinner. A variety of foods served on one corner, a karaoke machine on the other side, and tables and chairs in the middle. Dahyun is busy entertaining the guests arriving. Her mother told her to just enjoy the party and chat with her friends but she insisted anyway.

 

30 minutes into the party, and Dahyun still can’t seem to stay in one place. She keeps on glancing towards their gate, her neck stretched, her eyes never getting tired of scanning the whole place for a particular face.

 

_Maybe she isn’t coming._

 

It is the most possible thing to happen, since all she received from Sana was a simple reply saying “I will try!”.Maybe she forgot about it. But that’s kinda impossible since her parents also invited Mr. and Mrs. Minatozaki. Unfortunately they won’t be able to come due to work, but they can at least remind Sana, can’t they?

 

She’d be lying if she says she isn’t feeling any kind of disappointment right now, but hey, it’s her birthday. She should at least try to enjoy her day.

 

“Hey! This pasta is delicious. You should invite me to come over when Mrs. Kim cooks this.” Chaeyoung nudges her side, a plate on one hand, and a fork on the other. “God, can I take some of this home?”

 

Dahyun chuckles at her friend, pulls a piece of napkin from a nearby table and wipes the excess white sauce on the corner of Chaeyoung’s lips. “Ask my mom and she’d probably let you take home a whole tub. And will you please pace yourself? You’re a messy eater. Learn how to twirl.”

 

“Whatever. I’m getting some more.” Chaeyoung says before pushing through the crowd to get to the other side where the foods are lined up.

 

All of a sudden, all the lights went off. The guests murmured in confusion, and Dahyun was about to fish her phone out for a flashlight but a piece of cloth, specifically a long handkerchief, she thinks when she cupped a feel of it, is wrapped around her head, obscuring her already dark view.

 

“What the—what is this?”

 

The person behind her didn’t reply, but instead, holds her by her shoulders, squeezing it lightly. The person guided her steps forward, and holds her back when it’s time to halt. Dahyun knew this would be some kind of surprise, so she just let them do their thing and patiently waited for an instruction to remove the blindfold.

 

The person then stood in front of her, sliding her hands from her shoulder down to her hands.

 

“Dahyunnie?”

 

Dahyun releases an inaudible gasp, her mouth forming an O shape the moment she recognizes the voice. She quickly brings her hands up to remove the blindfold, and even when her vision is still blurry while adjusting to the light, there is no way she wouldn’t recognize that face. That smile. Those brown, wavy locks. Never in a million years would she ever forget the features she’s already memorized ever since they were kids.

 

“Happy birthday to you~”

 

“Sana unnie!” Dahyun lunges forward, throwing her arms around Sana. The crowd started singing happy birthday along with Sana, while the two of them continues to share a tight hug in front of everyone. The younger girl tries to repress her tears, but fails anyway. Sana lets go of the hug when she felt something hot on her shoulders.

 

“Dahyun-ah! Why are you crying? You’re not allowed to cry today!” Sana exclaims, gently wiping the tears running down Dahyun’s cheeks. She isn’t worried though, especially when she sees Dahyun smile and chuckle. The latter proceeds to giving her light, playful smacks.

 

“I hate you. I thought you wouldn’t come. You didn’t even greet me at 12 midnight. Not even all day. You made me think you forgot about me!”

 

“Okay, we’ll talk about that later. You need to make a wish and blow your candles first!” Sana points the cake behind her, 18 candles lit on top of it. Dahyun clasps her hands under her chin, closes her eyes, and quietly tells the stars and the universe of her wishes. The crowd cheers once again after she blew the candles.

 

“Picture time! Everyone gather around!” Mr. Kim announces, gesturing people to go around the cake, a camera on hand. After everyone’s settled down, they gave their biggest smiles, but no one can beat how Dahyun’s smile clearly resonates how much happiness she feels at that moment.

 

\--

 

Sana and Dahyun are now sitting at Dahyun’s room terrace after helping her parents clean up after the party. It ended about two hours ago, but Mr. and Mrs. Kim insisted that Sana stays for a sleepover since they know they haven’t seen each other for a while. “We should give the best friends time to catch up,” Mrs. Kim says, to which Mr. Kim agrees.

 

“So,” Dahyun starts, an eyebrow curving up while looking at Sana. “Why were you ignoring me ever since I invited you? Was it on purpose?”

 

The older girl chuckles at how much of a failure Dahyun is at acting upset. The way she crosses her arms is just adorable. “Kinda. Well, you already know how busy I was with college and that theatre play, but I suddenly had the idea to surprise you. I was still online on Twitter when I saw you tweet “still waiting for a birthday greeting from someone…”. You’re talking about me, aren’t you?” She teases.

 

“Wh-what? I was—that was… uhm… I’m talking about… my crush! I was waiting for my crush to greet me.”  Dahyun shyly murmurs. Sana gasps at the information.

 

“Oh, my Dahyunnie has a crush? Already?! I was just away by two months!” she dramatically exclaims, fake sobs while clutching her chest. “I feel cheated.”

 

_There’s no need to feel cheated,_  Dahyun thinks. It was just a blatant lie she came up with because she was too taken aback by the accusation.

 

“What’s that even supposed to mean! Well, yeah, just this boy…I don’t want to talk about it.”

 

_Really, Dahyun? A boy? Pft._  She mocks herself in her mind.

 

“Why? Did your crush not greet you?”

 

_No, because he doesn’t exist._ “Yeah, he didn’t.”

 

“Aw,” Sana wraps a shoulder around her. “He’s not worth it. Trust me; you’ll meet a lot more handsome, intelligent boys in college.”

 

“Well, do you have a crush already?”

 

“Me? None,” Sana shakes her head. “There are a lot of cute ones, some of them are already asking for my number, but I don’t have time for anything close to romantic relationships yet. I just want to focus on my studies.”

 

An odd feeling of relief washes over Dahyun. She doesn’t know the exact reason, but she’s just happy that her unnie is just busy with studies, not with somebody else.

 

“Ah, before I forget,” Sana stands up and goes inside the room to get something from her bag. Dahyun observes her from behind, curious as to what Sana took out. Seconds later, the older girl went back with a small black box in hand.

 

“I got you something.” Sana hands her the box, with Dahyun excitedly grabbing it to finally open.

 

It was a round necklace with a black background and white dots, some of them connected with lines. They looked like constellations.

 

“I got it custom-made. Cost me a bit, but I know how much you love stars, so I told them to design it with what the sky looked like on the night you were born. Even told them the exact time. Pretty, right?” Sana just grins, feeling proud of herself despite the lack of response from her question because Dahyun’s expression right there is priceless. Her jaw dropped, eyes wide, mouth can’t even utter a single word, but she need not be for Sana to tell how much she loves the gift.

 

“Here. Let me wear it around your neck.”

 

After Sana is done with the tiny locks, she turns her around to see how it looks.

 

“It fits you perfectly! Your crush would totally take a second look.”

 

Dahyun palms the necklace, head hung low, observing the beauty hanging around her neck. It may be the most thoughtful gift anyone has given her in the 18 years of her existence. She tackles Sana into a warm, tight embrace, and that was more than enough than a simple “thank you”.

 

“You are making me too happy tonight, unnie.”

 

Sana reciprocates the hug with the same intensity as she whispered.

 

“Happiness is what you deserve, Dahyunnie.”

 

Dahyun was the first one to break the hug. They continued with catching up, not even noticing how much time has passed as they were both deep into their conversation that doesn’t seem to end anytime sooner. It did, at some point, when Sana’s phone buzzed and illuminated with a text message from her mom.

 

“Oh damn, it’s already 11:15! I need to go quick or else I’m gonna miss the last train ri—“

 

“But it’s already late and many bad people are roaming around… it’s dangerous. Tell Mrs. Minatozaki I invited you for a sleepover and that it’s my birthday wish.”

 

“Wow, your birthday wish is to cuddle with me to sleep? I gotta say, I feel honored, really.” Sana teases once again while typing a reply to her mother. It’s a good thing that Sana was busy with it or else she would’ve teased Dahyun more at how red her face has gotten after that comment. She tries to calm herself down with arranging the bed for the two of them while coming up with an appropriate response.

 

“Who says I would cuddle with you? My bed is big. I don’t need to.”

 

“Oh,” Sana walks up to her after tossing her phone into the dresser and hugs her by the waist, pouting. “You don’t want to?”

 

Dahyun chuckles nervously at the sight, and how it seems like she’s the only one noticing how near Sana’s face is to hers, so she turns away and pretends to be focused on the pillows. “I have many pillows to cuddle with.”

 

The older girl sighs in defeat and slowly lets go of the younger’s waist before climbing up to the bed, taking up the side against the wall. She lies down with her back facing her. “Fine.” She went on pretending to sleep.

 

The lights went off and Sana felt Dahyun settling down beside her. A smile crept up her face when she felt an arm snake around her waist, pulling her close.

 

“You’re warmer, though.”

 

Sana turns around to face Dahyun. Her face is radiating under the moonlight glow, her eyes reflecting the light seeping through the window, making it look like they’re sparkling. Dahyun is suddenly in a trance, and every second spent staring at those orbs made the feeling of being sucked in intensify. She is so lost that she didn’t think about the fact that Sana’s also staring right back at her.

 

Dahyun is confused, but it just felt right.

 

Her mind went haywire the moment Sana starts leaning in, making her involuntarily close her eyes when her lips pressed against her forehead. It lingers there for a while, and Dahyun doesn’t know how to react with all the things she’s been feeling in one go. There was some kind of feeling that surged in her veins, something that she’s never felt before. Sana’s lips felt so soft against her skin.

 

_Makes me wonder how it would feel against my li--_

 

“I missed you so much, Dahyunnie. I know I already said it earlier, but I just want you to know that I would never forget about you, okay?”

 

Still in a daze, Dahyun only responds with a nod. Her face is feeling incredibly hot right now, maybe even her whole body, and she can hear her own heartbeat in her ears.

 

“Now, we sleep.” Sana murmurs, pulling Dahyun closer so she can rest her head on the crook of her neck. Minutes later, she can already feel the older girl’s breathing become steady, a light snore coming out of her mouth, signaling that she’s already asleep.

 

How Dahyun wished that she could doze off, but the continuous loud beating reverberating inside her made it difficult to ease her mind.

 

That one felt  _so_ right, but she isn’t confused anymore.

 

\--

 

More months have passed. While Sana became even busier with her college life, Dahyun became preoccupied preparing for her last year in high school, taking up different exams for different universities, fussing about what course would be more beneficial for her to take. It ended up with her following what her parents want her to take, which is Biology, because she herself don’t even know what she wants to pursue, so she thinks, why not give it a shot? She finds Biology cool anyway. It’s the least Science topic she’s found uninteresting.

 

As time progresses, their communication with each other lessened. This whole graduation thing really kept her mind from things, from her recent realization about what she feels towards Sana, and she guesses that it’s good. It’s not like Sana’s obligated to check up on her.

 

Sana’s life goes on. Hers too.

 

Everything’s fine.

 

That’s what she kept on telling herself.


End file.
